As increasing numbers of devices become interconnected and users consume more data, the demand on servers to provide that data may continue to grow. These demands may include, for example, increased data rates, switching architectures with longer interconnects, reduced cost, and power competitive solutions.
For medium range transmission in servers and high performance computers, dielectric waveguides operating in the millimeter (mm)-wave frequency range may provide a performance and/or cost advantage with respect to optical and/or electrical fabrics. As used herein, “medium range” may refer to transmission ranges of approximately 1 to approximately 5 meters (m). The desired data rate at a mm-wave frequency range may be achieved by taking advantage of available frequency bandwidth. For example, a radio or transceiver operating over a 40 Gigahertz (GHz) bandwidth from 100 GHz to 140 GHz may deliver data rates of approximately 40 Gigabits per second (Gbps) with a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation scheme. The same radio may deliver up to 80 Gbps over the same frequency range if a quadrature amplitude modulation 16 (QAM16) modulation scheme is used.
In radio-over-waveguide applications, where radio waves are transmitted through a dielectric waveguide, a single mode waveguide operating over a broad frequency range may experience varying group delay response as a function of the frequency over medium range. This chromatic dispersion may result in inter-symbol interference, as digital signals carried on different wavelengths travel at different speeds through the same waveguide.